Local Plan - The basics

Sefton Planning department are proposing that planning permission be given for a number of new 'affordable' homes to be built in the period up to 2028. This was formerly known as The Core Strategy, however under the new planning system it is now the Local Plan.

The Local Plan will be used when considered all planning applications, including that on some of our prime agricultural land and Greenbelt. It is stated that Sefton does not have an adequate amount of land on which to build the quantity of houses required without resorting to the use of greenbelt land. Sefton Council are not the only local authority who are developing a Local Plan. Councils up and down the country are developing their own Local Plan to replace the older Core Strategy and before that Unitary Development Plans (UDP).

A very large proportion of greenbelt land within Sefton is very rare and precious Grade 1 and Grade 2 agricultural land.

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If these proposals are allowed to proceed then in one stroke the reason for which the greenbelt concept was introduced, the prevention of ribbon development and urban sprawl, will have been negated.It is recognised that more homes are needed, however there are plenty of Brownfield sites available without the Greenbelt being destroyed. Brownfield land is an area of land or premises that has been previously used but has become vacant or derelict . We also believe that Sefton Planners are using out of date statistics when it forecasts the number of households that will be needed in the forthcoming years. We believe that the statistics released in 2010 by the Department of Communities and Local Government clearly shows a significant reduction in housing needs, not an increase as proposed by Sefton. After all it was not so long ago Sefton were closing primary schools due to the falling population.